Did Jarrett And Michelle Pick Incompetent Website Firm?

Health Fail: Healthcare.gov's implosion may be due to one of its major developers being selected less for its technical competence than for cronyism. Perhaps the White House was hoping for a friends and family discount.

Why pick a Canadian firm with a French name to help develop the official ObamaCare website? It certainly wasn't based on the track record in developing health care software of CGI Federal, the IT contractor that orchestrated most of the Healthcare.gov website.

CGI Federal is a wholly owned subsidiary of Canada's CGI Group (CGI stands for "Conseillers en Gestion et Informatique" in French, which roughly translates to "Information Systems and Management Consultants").

Its performance on Ontario, Canada's health care medical registry for diabetes sufferers was so poor that officials ditched the $46.2 million contract after three years of missed deadlines, the Washington Examiner has reported.

CGI is also the company behind the $2.7 billion failed, Liberal-launched Canadian Gun Registry that was so plagued with corruption and mismanagement it brought on an investigation by Canadian Auditor General Sheila Fraser.

The company is deeply embedded in Canada's single-payer system, which is the direction President Obama's health care policies are driving us. CGI has provided IT services to the Canadian Ministries of Health in Alberta, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Saskatchewan, as well as to the national health provider, Health Canada, according to CGI's website.

George Schindler, CGI Group president for U.S. and Canada, became an Obama 2012 campaign donor after his company won the ObamaCare contract, a pattern we've seen in green-energy stimulus money going to companies like Solyndra.

As it happens, the Daily Caller reports that Michelle Obama's college roomie Toni Townes-Whitley, Princeton class of '85, is a senior vice president at CGI Federal, which earned the no-bid contract to build the $678 million ObamaCare enrollment website at Healthcare.gov.

There may be another Canadian connection as well.

Valerie Jarrett's daughter, Laura, is married to Tony Balkissoon. He is the son of Bas Balkissoon, a member of the Ontario legislature whose jobs have included, among other things, a stint as parliamentary assistant to the minister of Health and Long-Term Care from 2007-10. It's all in the family.

A major decision such as choosing Healthcare.gov's prime developer certainly would not be made without Jarrett's approval. Her influence is so great, as we have pointed out, she called off raids to get Osama bin Laden three times for political reasons.

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